While Seattle felt good about where they were at the midseason point before Sunday, after the game was over, not only did the Ravens destroy the Seahawks 37-3, but they may have also started to cast a shadow of doubt and raise the question, “Can the Seahawks win a Super Bowl with Geno Smith?”

Smith revised his career last year in Seattle, posting career-best numbers and topping it off with a Pro Bowl season. He finished the year with 4,282 passing yards, 30 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, and a total QB rating of 100.9. While the season as a whole was enough to reward Smith with a new 3-year, $105 million contract and solidify his position as the Seahawks’ starter, the last 13 games from 2022 into 2023 are starting to show a trend that could make many of the 12s nervous. Smith’s performance seems to be slowing down after his hot start in Seattle.

Coming into the 2023 season following a playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Geno Smith has thrown for 4 fewer TDs and 4 more INTs through the first eight games compared to the 2022 season, with a QBR down approximately 20 points from 107.85 to 86.7. While the statistical output this season is more in line with how Geno finished last season, the performance in big games against Super Bowl contenders has to be concerning for Pete Carroll and the Seahawks as Geno has not been able to deliver.

Rather than using the multiple first and second-round picks from the Wilson trade with the Denver Broncos to address their quarterback situation, the Seahawks have elected to gamble on Smith to continue elevating his game and make the Seahawks a Super Bowl contender. The risk for Seattle could be very damaging, however, if Geno is unable to perform better in big games, as he displayed on Sunday in Baltimore. The Seahawks are building a talented roster, but without Geno Smith’s ability to create bigger plays, Seattle will not be able to compete with the top offenses led by Mahomes, Burrow, and Jackson in the league.

Pete Carroll and John Schneider are choosing to rebuild their team similar to what they had in their Super Bowl years with Marshawn Lynch and the Legion of Boom. But even as elite as the 2013 Seahawks were defensively, it was still Russell Wilson making big plays when it mattered to bring Seattle their first Super Bowl championship.

If Geno Smith continues to struggle, it would not be out of the question for Seattle to turn to Drew Lock before the end of the season to see what they have in the former Broncos quarterback as part of the Wilson trade. Lock has looked better and more comfortable in Seattle, but a young Seattle roster led by Lock would essentially put the Seahawks right where Denver was before trading for Wilson, which is an average football team stuck in mediocrity.

Geno Smith has 9 more games this season to prove that he is the quarterback of the future. But if he is not, then Seattle will enter into the purgatory of finding the next franchise quarterback. This is not where Seattle should be, especially since there are no more picks coming from Denver to address their quarterback situation.